Redemption
by Disgraceful Redemption
Summary: Nearing the end of humanity, magic called upon her champion to birth the end of the infection. It's really too bad that her champion is a man called Harry Potter. Non-con, gore, bestiality, m-preg, one-shot, complete.


Summary: Nearing the end of humanity, magic called upon her champion to birth the end of the infection. It's really too bad that her champion is a man called Harry Potter. N/C, Bestiality, M-Preg, Blood, Gore, Swearing, Sexual Themes, Stockholm Syndrome.

Harry drowsily opened his eyes, the exhaustion from the previous hard weeks weighing down heavily on his eyelids and body. There was a weird clicking sound; he was sure he had heard it before… somewhere, but his dead mind was sluggish at best and it was hard to concentrate. Then, the bed dipped and he jerked.

"Wha-!" A large, naked body crushed his into the mattress and rancid, foetid breath washed over his face. He nearly gagged and began to struggle, but a nip on his shoulder from what felt to be _very_ sharp, serrated teeth and an animalistic, _hungry_ growl in his ear put an immediate stop to his writhing. Breathing shallowly, he swallowed heavily, trying to think through the exhaustion and terror gripping him.

The thing started shifting, moving around minutely. Harry paid it no mind. Why do these things always happen to him? He frantically tried to think of a way out of the newest mess he's gotten himself into, but the hovering mouth over his shoulder promised pain should he try. Some more clicking; it sounded strange, almost curious… Harry mentally shook himself away from that thought. Now was not the time!

It turned him completely onto his stomach so suddenly that he yelped, only to be cut off by something long and slimy slipping around his throat and into his mouth. Choking, he thought with building dread and horror, _a licker_! The appendage wriggled around his mouth, tasting rancid and horrible. A growl behind his ear, and the licker's large claws pinned his arms to his sides as it hugged him tightly.

Something hot and heavy settled along the crack of his arse, gently moving as if looking for something. Harry choked out a cry as the licker's legs hooked under his, forcing his thighs to spread and lift. That hot something settled almost perfectly at the hole of his arse and Harry's eyes widened, the irises shaking with terror.

With a slurp, the licker's long tongue retreated and Harry breathed in to scream for help. But fiery hot pain buried into his shoulder and he instead screamed in pain. Then, he screamed louder as the licker's phallus surged into his woefully unprepared body, nearly rending him in two halves. It was too big… too big! Take it out! Take it out! Takeitouttakeitouttakeitoutt akeitout…

"Takeitouttakeitouttakeitoutt akeitout!" Harry wailed, not even aware of what he was saying or what he was saying it to. The licker's thrusts were hard and brutal, its phallus too big and too long for the human body to handle. But magic whirled around him, cruelly keeping him aware of every second of his assault, damning him for recovering enough from the initial shock to feel the sparks and strikes of pleasure as the licker's thrusts somehow hit the nerve deep inside of him.

His screams of pain slowly turned into wails of pleasure, his cock swelling painfully and heat coiling in his stomach. The licker's thrusts were fast and brutal, stimulating his nerve endings to the point where all he was aware of was the pleasure. His voice breaking from the scream as he came, he lost his voice and tears streaked down his face from the cruel pleasure. Still magic whirled around him and around the licker as it kept its pace, forcibly wringing another climax out of him, then another, and then another. Magic kept him conscious until the thrusts sped up and became harder, his arse slapping almost painfully against the licker's thighs.

Then, with a great roar, the licker reached its own climax and Harry was finally given blissful darkness from the nightmare.

The licker convulsed for several minutes, its infected seed splattering Harry's inner walls and bowels. Then, with a sigh, it stilled. Removing its teeth from the human's shoulder, it licked the wounds until they healed over, leaving slight teeth scars in their wake. It curled around the small human protectively as the sun rose and shone light upon the room, welcoming a new day in the apocalypse.

Harry woke up, happily snuggled against his wife, his nose buried in fiery red hair. Content oozed from every limb as he lazed in the bedding, listening to the soft huffs of Ginny's breathing. When nature finally started to demand his awakening, he carefully pulled his length out of Ginny's warmth and got ready for the new day.

After finishing his morning rituals and nursing a piping hot cup of coffee, Harry sat down at the kitchen table and opened up the most recent edition of the Daily Prophet. There were more attacks and more deaths. People were starting to wonder if some dark wizard wasn't making inferi and setting them on the world. But that wouldn't explain the dead eating the living… and the living becoming the flesh eating dead. None of it made any sense.

Sighing, he folded up the paper and finished his coffee. He had work in a few minutes and it wouldn't do to be late.

Harry woke up abruptly, but the tight hold on his body kept him from moving. Flashes of memory came back to him and he started trembling, fat tears leaking down one side of his face as he stared blankly at the wall. He could feel the licker's phallus still lodged in his arse and every move it made sent jolts of pleasure up his spine. Harry didn't know why the beast was still around, or why it still had its dick in his arse, but he didn't dare move.

The only source of time in the room was the elongating shadows as the sun began its descent. After a while of simply watching the shadows lengthen, the licker shifted and Harry jerked, a pleasured wheeze forcing out of his throat and sparks flashing across his tightly closed eyes. The licker's tongue slipped out of its mouth and around his throat, tight enough to keep him still, but loose enough for Harry to just barely get enough oxygen into his system.

Harry could feel the licker's phallus soften abruptly, slipping out of his rear. More tears dripped down his cheeks as he felt thick liquid viscous liquid slide down his thighs. He slumped boneless on the bed when the licker finally let him go, not feeling an ounce of emotion as it stuck its face into his arse and sniffed for a few minutes. Finally satisfied with whatever it found, the licker slid its tongue into his passage, making him jerk and wheeze again.

With a profound sense of relief, Harry heard it leave the same way it came – likely the window – and left him alone. The silence that descended upon the room was both grating and relieving and he dropped off into a pained sleep as the sun dropped below the horizon.

Waking up again after everything that had happened did not surprise Harry in the least. He knew that he was incapable of dying, solely because of the blasted Deathly Hallows, and he knew that magic kept the magical world and himself free from the infection that killed the rest of the world. He wanted to die; he wanted to rejoin all that he had lost, but he couldn't.

After all, though magic kept the magical world from becoming the walking dead, did not mean that magical folk were immune to being eaten alive.

He hadn't moved since he passed out, which was a strange thing for him because he usually fell off the side of the bed from nightmares. His stomach and abdomen squirmed and writhed, making Harry feel queasy and nauseous without the urgent need to heave. That, too, was a strange thing, but he brushed it off and slowly worked himself to his feet.

Every movement punctured his spine with sharp jolts of pain, but they weren't as bad as he thought they would be. Still, the trip to the bathroom was riddled with gritted teeth and half waddling. The sheer embarrassment of passing that creature's… stuff into the toilet was almost more than he could handle, but at least he got it over and done with.

After taking a shower, he waddled back into the room and nearly slumped back onto the bed before remembering the soiled bedding. Waving a hand listlessly, the bedding disappeared and another set appeared, clean and fresh without the memories of the assault clinging to it. With a sigh, Harry dropped face first onto the bed and didn't move for a long time, his mind refusing to shut down.

He nearly missed it, but the odd clicking sounds penetrated his whirling thoughts and spurred him into action. With a soundless gasp, he shot up from the bed, jerking his hands frantically at the window, but it was a moment too late. The window snapped shut right after the licker slithered into the room. Its long tongue languidly writhed out of its mouth, strands of saliva dripping to the floor.

Trembling, Harry crab crawled backwards, trying to put some distance between him and the creature that was watching him with an eyeless gaze. Almost lazily, it bolted towards him and he only had enough time to gasp in terror as it crushed him into the bed and shoved its tongue down his throat. He choked and cried, his struggling ineffective against the rippling mass of muscles that rendered him helpless and terrified yet again.

The licker took him on his back this time, the thick and long rod going in easier but no less painful and pleasurable. And again, magic kept him completely aware of everything as the mounting pleasure swept him away into a world of carnal sin, where every completion was a promise for another. Harry clutched the lickers shoulders unknowingly, unable to focus on anything besides the climax that stole through his body, making him convulse even though the next climax was well on its way.

Everything was too hot.

From the insulation of the walls, the closed window, the bedding, the licker's and his own temperatures rising, the creature's phallus felt like a hot poker that brutally and uncaringly jabbed his sensitive insides. Everything was too hot and he felt like he was melting.

Another climax shot up his spine.

And another.

And another.

And another.

He didn't know how many times he came; the mindless pleasure turned his brain to mush and his body to pudding. His entire world consisted of animalistic growling, his own loud wheezes from his broken voice box, the slapping of his arse against the licker's thighs and the wet squelching of their coupling.

His body barely convulsed at all when another orgasm hit him, his dick spewing nothing, completely spent but still red and engorged. With his scattered thoughts, he fervently wished for an end to the nightmare, even… no, _especially_ if it ended with his death.

His breathing hitched when the licker finally sped up and completely dominated his lower body, slamming into him so hard that his teeth jarred from the force. Two orgasms rippled through him, nearly knocking him out as the licker roared and stilled, slamming home and spurting magma hot seed into his bowels. Two tears dripped down the sides of his face as he stared blankly at the ceiling, feeling the licker's phallus swell almost painfully.

So that's why.

More tears joined the first and second, knowing that the licker was going to stay until its length unknotted and released it from his body. Oh, how he wished he could die.

Harry didn't move as the licker sniffed along his neck and shoulders, licking here and there for whatever reason. His stomach squirmed and writhed, so much this time that he curled up into the licker's embrace to clutch his middle. The movement sent sporadic spurts of pleasure racing up and down his exhausted, abused body, but he paid nary attention to it. His… his stomach was becoming… _hard_.

His stomach was slightly distended when the pain went away and Harry slumped boneless, not even caring in the least that the licker was cuddling him.

When he felt the licker's phallus finally soften and slip out of him, Harry shakily stood from the bed, ignoring the growling from the creature. If it was going to kill him, it would have done so already. He half waddled downstairs, the need for food churning his stomach into knots. Absently rubbing his distended abdomen, he magically opened a few cans of food and plopped the contents into a clean looking bowl. There was little point in being sanitary when he couldn't get infected and he couldn't die.

After heating it up with a wave of his hand, he pulled a spoon out of a drawer and dug in, not even caring how it tasted. He wasn't picky anyway. The heavy thumps and clicks informed him that the licker had joined him on the main level. He had just put the empty bowl down when the licker's tongue swept up his thigh and into his entrance. Clutching the counter, Harry gritted his teeth and bore the violation. Magic didn't work against the infected.

After a few moments, the appendage retreated and Harry collapsed, curling into himself. Why didn't it just leave him alone?! He ignored it as the licker took up some kind of sentinel near him. Harry snorted; he really must be going crazy if the stupid thing was _guarding_ him of all things. Though… he looked down to his stomach… his _bloated_ stomach. What if… what if he…

Unable to take anymore, he passed out.

Exhausted, Harry stumbled out of the floo, covered in soot and still unable to properly use the darn things. The house was dark and quiet, which was unusual, but Harry paid little mind to it. The cases of the muggle infections were taking up more than half the Auror department and everyone was severely overworked.

Harry rubbed a hand over his face roughly; those pictures of innocent people being eaten alive… he shuddered. It was a wonder that the department was still functioning, from how tense everyone was. At any rate, he tries his hardest to keep his professional and personal life separate, so he shoved all negativity into the back of his mind and gestured the lights on with his hand.

There was blood _everywhere_.

All at once, the dry coppery scent of blood overwhelmed him and his heart jumped into his throat.

Waking slowly, Harry smiled. He was warm, comfortable, relaxed and completely sated. Ginny could be a real wildfire in bed. His smile grew fonder at the thought of his wife… but then it dropped when he remembered that she's dead. He opened his eyes to see the reality of the licker that has violated him and… and…

He pushed away from the licker's embrace far and long enough to heave over the side of the bed, glad that only a little bit of the food he had eaten before came up. Then, he wasn't glad because it meant that he had been out for quite a while. He grimaced at the filth he had lain in for who knows how long and waved it away weakly, the regurgitation, excretes, and the smell. He couldn't do anything about the licker's knotted phallus, however. It was thick and pulsing in his backside and he was suddenly severely disappointed he had been unconscious for the action. Thick, fat tears leaked out of his eyes as his emotions roiled.

He blamed his insanity on the hormones of his… condition.

His arms went down to his stomach, a lot bigger than the last time he had been awake. He wanted to destroy the life that was growing inside of him, but the faint promise that that same life was going to kill him once it reached maturity for birth stayed his nerves. Maybe, once it was born, he would be able to finally die and rejoin his family.

Harry smiled bitterly. At least he'll be able to go extremely satisfied.

Hormones rolled down his body into his groin and half insane from his predicament, Harry began to move, mewling silently when the pleasure of the creature's phallus stimulated the nerves inside of him. Uncaring, he rolled his hips as best as he could in his position, moaning breathlessly at the pleasure that coursed through his veins and sent him reeling towards completion. With the addition of his hands working frantically on his manhood, his orgasm hit him hard, making him jerk his hips suddenly. Right at the same moment, the licker shifted, resulting in Harry's prostate being jabbed at the peak of his completion.

With another soundless wail, Harry came again, cum spurting all over his chest and fingers. Boneless yet again, the raven slumped and simply_ existed_, not having enough in him to be ashamed of himself. He didn't even dredge enough energy to care when the creature used its tongue to clean him of his seed. Tired of _feeling_, Harry felt the licker's phallus soften and slip out, the creature's own seed dripping out of his entrance. The raven wrapped his arms around the licker's neck, relishing in the warmth of simply being held.

Even if it was by a monster more than capable of ripping him to pieces.

He hugged the licker tighter when he felt the tongue clean the excess seed from his entrance. His stomach squirmed again and he could _feel_ the thing inside him shift as it grew. No wonder the creature kept fucking him. It had to feed the young with its seed. Which left little room to doubt his pregnancy.

Harry blamed the hormones for the surge of arousal and happiness.

Harry was completely aware for their next romp and he could have sworn it was the longest and best so far. It had gone on for hours and by the end of it, magic enabled him to pass out from the exhaustion. He still didn't understand why it kept him awake for most of the action. When he awoke, he was hungry and huge. The licker positively _hovered_ nearby as he made his way downstairs to get something to eat. He didn't want to die hungry after all.

After fixing himself something to eat, he sat by the window and looked out, watching the dead wander the dirty streets aimlessly. He could hear the licker clicking up behind him and settling down, its tongue caressing his naked back, leaving wet trails behind. He shuddered as his hormones nearly got the better of him. Once he was finished eating, he stayed at the window, thinking, his hand absently rubbing his bulging stomach.

When razor sharp teeth grazed his shoulder, Harry got up, his manhood standing at attention for the impending pleasure. He waddled back upstairs and slipped onto the bed, resigned and almost excited for the next few hours. The licker pinned him to the mattress and entered him, immediately rendering Harry a sobbing mess of pleasure, the only sounds being the squeaks of the bed and flesh slapping against flesh.

Uncountable orgasms and a nap later, Harry woke and he found himself alone for the first time in about a week. The window was open, which told him that the licker left at some point. Shivering, he got up and manually closed the window, leaving it unlocked. If the creature did come back, he didn't want it breaking the window.

He took a bath, the water nearly skin peeling hot but it was like heaven for him. All the strenuous activity, all the stress, everything that had been piling on his shoulders melted into the steaming water and he finally relaxed. It has been years since the infection first spread and he often wondered if there was anyone else alive. Then again, he lived in this small town for only a couple of weeks and he was often moving around. He never returned to the places he had been, so it couldn't be that hard to believe that there were still people around that he kept missing.

However, it was obvious that the town had been overrun long before he got here. He didn't have any idea if there were even any survivors left.

Whatever. As callous as it sounds, the idea of any survivors was low on his priority list. There was a chance of the mini licker killing him on its way out, so he had to hold onto that hope. There wasn't much he could do to help anyone anyway. If he stepped outside right now, he'd get eaten alive and he could say with experience that it was not pleasant in the least.

Harry sighed as his manhood flared up again. Stupid hormones. And stupid body; yearning for that licker's touch. He blamed it on the mini licker's need to feed. Stupid mini licker. Everything was stupid.

Touching himself yielded no results. As completely crazy as it sounds, he believed his body became accustomed to how 'spoiled' it got when the licker needed to nourish its young and the meager stimulation of his hand was not going to do it anymore. Or maybe it was the utter domination?

Harry found that he thought weird thoughts these days. Getting fucked by the licker wasn't as bad as it used to be and really, who was going to care? There wasn't anyone _around_ that would give two shits about him being screwed up the ass by a bloodthirsty creature and getting impregnated by that same creature. Hell, nobody around to care that a man was pregnant in the first place.

Playing with the water and with himself, he thought.

Harry had long since opened the window.

The cool night air teased his naked form, his manhood standing at attention, red and swollen from his failed attempts to reach completion. He wished forlornly for the licker to come back and fuck him into the mattress, his frustrations and loneliness getting to him. Alone for years and rarely touching himself in his grief, it was no wonder he had turned to a fucking _licker_ for company.

He had tried a few times to talk, but nothing came out. It would probably take some time for him to get his voice back. It wasn't helping that his silent screams of pleasure grated on his throat.

Giving up on his dick, Harry started crying. His hormones were all over the place and mini licker was shifting around, most likely hungry. He stood up and padded to the door, sighing in self-hate. Hand on the door knob, he paused, hearing faint clicking. Happiness and joy surged to the forefront as his tears immediately dried. He couldn't believe how _happy_ he was from the licker returning to fuck him into the bed.

He was about to move forward when a much bigger licker crawled through the window, sniffing around and tongue salivating. Fear shot up his spine as it turned towards him, his lipless teeth creating a demented smile. With his arms protectively over his stomach, Harry backed into the door. The thump of his back hitting the wood set the licker off and it shot at him.

Gasping, he managed to get out of the way at the last moment, scrambling towards the bed and window as it crashed through the wood. However, the licker was faster and tackled him to the floor beside the bed. Harry struggled, screaming silently as he tried to get away, but unlike his licker, this one was nearly twice the size and that much stronger. It pinned him to the floor and sniffed around his stomach as he squirmed.

He knew, on some instinctual level he never knew he had, that the licker showing interest rather than killing him outright was a _very_ bad thing. He couldn't put his finger on it and really, he was panicking too much to think on it at all, but he _knew_ that his baby was going to die if he didn't do something _right now_.

He was hyperventilating when the licker started to mount him, soundless denials spilling out of his mouth and racing through his mind. This couldn't be happening, his couldn't be happening, this couldn'tbehappeningthiscouldn'tbeha-

There was an enraged roar and Harry cringed, fully expecting the pain of entrance from a licker that big, but the weight on top of him disappeared. Sobbing hysterically, he curled into himself as best he could, wrapping his arms around his stomach. His baby! _His baby_! Holy shit! Something snapping, Harry suddenly fainted from the stress and fear.

Harry's transition from unconsciousness to complete awareness was so abrupt that he twitched. His large green eyes snapping open; he looked around, the overwhelming scent of blood hitting his senses. There was an unmoving mass just outside the bedroom door, barely seen from his vantage point on the bed. To his utter relief, the shadowy mass was too big to be his licker.

His hands flew to his stomach. This time, he actually let out a sigh of relief when he found his baby unharmed and still there. The bed shifted and Harry turned to see his licker standing guard over him. Warmth bloomed in his heart and his groin, and he reached out for _his_ licker, his hand tracing its jaw line. It looked down at him, holding completely still as he explored its face; the teeth that marked his shoulder, the small, powerful remnants of a nose, the exposed brain that he touched tenderly and softly just to see what it felt like.

His fingers wandered down its thick, corded neck and caressed down its rippled chest. It growled at him, its tongue slithering out of its mouth, but he shushed it and took its tongue in his mouth, moaning. His manhood sprung to life as the licker shifted so it was on top of him, pinning him to the bed, dominating his body with nary a try.

Its tongue slipped out of his mouth, Harry moaning for the loss, and slithered around his neck, writhing as the licker mounted him. Eagerly, he spread his legs, his right hand going between their bodies to grasp the licker's phallus and guiding it to his entrance. It growled and surged into him, making him gasp in euphoria. He locked his legs around the licker's waist, trying to keep up to the fast, brutal thrusts. His arms wrapped around the licker's shoulders, exposing his neck, _needing_ those teeth in his shoulder.

It bit down harshly and Harry climaxed, his body convulsing into another, nearly knocking him out from the intensity. His hands found some spikes he didn't find before, but he didn't dwell on it, merely holding onto them to keep him anchored to reality. His licker's claws dug into his sides lightly, but it only made his cock twitch and spew pre-cum. The blankets made a nest under him and his licker made a heater on top of him.

Everything was so hot.

Another climaxed shot through him and he arched into his licker, wailing soundlessly and convulsing in ecstasy. He felt like melting into a puddle of goo; his toes curling, legs still locked around his licker's waist, and trying to keep up with the brutal tempo. It was a lost cause from the start and it isn't too much longer until Harry falls still, utterly submitting to carnal lust.

Blood drips down his shoulder but he is swept away, so very far away from reality as his body is fucked into the mattress. Pleasure becomes Harry's reality, to where he escapes the unbearable loneliness that has plagued him for years and years. He doesn't delude himself; he knows the creature isn't capable of love any longer, but he so very much loves it and he loves his baby, the life that is growing inside of him, depending on him to survive until it is born.

And from that love blossoms the love of the child to the parent and Harry never felt more loved in the entirety of his life.

Only his training kept Harry from screaming out his wife's name in horror.

The blood… it's splattered all over the place. Over the walls and the books, the furniture and the floor, painting horror and death with the fine stroke of a brush. At his feet, the blood streaked into the kitchen and the raven dumbly followed it, only his hard trained instincts keeping his footsteps light and his breath steady and quiet.

The kitchen light came on and he couldn't contain his retch.

A knife was stabbed into the surface of the kitchen table, dark, dried blood staining the blade. A person's head was on its side under it, as if it had rolled there, the skin blue and blood black. The body was sprawled nearby; the shoulder looking like it had been torn off by teeth and the clothes dirty, ripped.

There was an arm near the wide open front door.

The blood skid continued up the stairs and Harry blindly followed, bile coating the back of his throat.

His licker roared as it climaxed, shooting its hot seed into his bowels and Harry welcomed it, reaching his own final completion. Nothing spurted from his length, but from all the times he had cum, he was practically glued to his licker. He moaned breathlessly as his licker's phallus swelled as it knotted and it curled around him protectively. He kissed its pectoral lovingly and relaxed. He knew he was safe.

His baby squirmed as his stomach swelled. Harry smiled, rubbing his abdomen lovingly. His baby would be born soon. Soon! Oh, how happy he will be when the time comes! Though, he didn't think he could even get up anymore, he was that big. No matter.

Harry shifted, carefully sitting up and manoeuvering until his back was to his licker and he settled back down. He pulled those large, dangerous arms around his middle until they held him as they would a lover. Then, he pushed back and relaxed again. His head was pushed to the side and his licker's own face settled into the crook of his neck, sharp teeth grazing the sensitive skin.

Harry smiled and dozed.

He didn't know how long it took, but his licker's phallus finally softened and it went to pull away, but this time it was Harry that was quicker. He sprung up and around, grabbing the long and thick penis and boldly rubbed it. His licker growled as he bent closer and took it in his mouth, the vibrations of his moan travelling into the phallus and making it swell.

Harry honestly didn't know what had gotten into him, but lately, he has been driven completely by instinct and instinct drove him half mad into desperate need.

His licker shoved him around and face first into the mattress as it mounted and entered him again. Harry wailed soundlessly, yes! Yes, yes, yes! Oh Merlin yes!

Magic sprung up again, whirling and electric, surging through Harry and lending him the strength to meet thrust for thrust. His voice wailed high and full of lust as it suddenly sounded out like a trumpet. His licker met his wail with a roar of its own, both creating a cacophony of breathless music. Climax after climax ripped through his body, but he hardly felt them, so doused in magic's will and his licker's jabbing length as it lovingly speared in and out of his well abused arse.

The hours trickled by, lost in each other's ecstasy. Magic kept Harry conscious and empowered enough to finish the task it had assigned to him, albeit unknowingly.

Finally, long after Harry lost his grip on reality, a climax so powerful his back arched nearly in half zapped through him like lightning, following immediately by the roar of his licker as it reached its own completion, for the second time that day.

Harry slumped to the bed, unconscious.

The licker's knot didn't swell this time and it slipped easily out of Harry's warm body. Infected seed oozed out of Harry's entrance and his abdomen swelled further. The licker turned the raven over onto his back and watched his stomach intently. It kept swelling until the skin ripped, finally unable to take the pressure.

A jagged opening appeared, a shiny black claw reaching through the bloody mess and further widening the rip. Another claw slicked through, trying to push the skin apart to let the rest of it through but it was beyond its current strength. The licker used its own claw to cut the rip further open, allowing the owner of the black claws to heave its toddler sized body out of its mother's abdomen.

Once it was out, it chirped, falling off the bed and making its way to the licker on unsteady legs. Its gleaming body was of the purest black, covered in very hard leathery skin that would grow stronger the older it got. The licker bent close to the ground on all fours, sniffing its offspring intently and snuffed, satisfied. The baby licker chirped.

The licker bumped the baby back towards the bed a couple of times, then left through the window to get food. The little black licker unsteadily walked back and climbed the side of the bed, growing stronger just from that small exercise. It chirped at its lifeless mother, nuzzling his neck, then curling up and going to sleep.

The blood streak led straight down the hall, into the nursery.

His heart pounding in his chest, Harry slowly walked down the hall, his eyes intent on the nursery's open door. He could hear some faint sounds but they did nothing to reassure him. That room held all of his and Ginny's future hopes. That was where they planned their future together; that is where they dreamt, in that room where the walls themselves spoke of their devotion.

He stopped just a food away, his body shaking with an unidentifiable emotion. He just couldn't muster the courage to enter that room. Ginny could be dying in there! Such a coward was he, a member of the most courageous and noble house in Hogwarts! But a part of him was also a snake and snakes knew when they were in danger.

Sucking in his breath, he forced himself beyond that invisible barrier.

Harry woke slowly to the sound of crunches and slurps, his entire body in pain. He couldn't remember much of before he passed out; it was all flashes and emotion. Despite the pain and the heaviness of his limbs, Harry never felt more sated than he did now. If he never had sex again, he wouldn't mind in the least.

Ignoring the sounds and the smells now that it finally registered, he forced his heavy arms onto his flat, sticky stomach. Panic swept through him on a rampage.

_Where's my baby!_

A chirp sounded near his head and he turned to see a small, black licker happily gnawing on a dead arm. The arm didn't bother him in the least in the face of his newborn child and the awe he felt as it looked back at him. It abandoned the arm and bound towards his face, nuzzling lovingly into his neck and chirping rapidly.

A smile bloomed on Harry's face as he nuzzled back as best as he could, love spreading warmth in his chest for the little black creation that had come from him and his licker. A family. A _family_! Tears of joy dribbled out of his eyes and down the side of his face. He finally had a family.

Using the last of his waning strength, Harry bumped it back towards its meal and fell asleep, dreaming of the future filled with little black lickers.

A strangled scream left his throat before his training could kick in.

_Ginny_. His beautiful, wonderful, _gorgeous_ wife Ginny laid dead, her face a pasty white and unmarred, so very pale against the fiery red hue of her hair. Her dead irises were looking straight at him, silently accusing him. Accusing him of what, Harry hadn't the time to decide.

Three flesh eating dead, two women and a man stopped their gorging and looked at him with eternal hunger in their white, milky eyes. As one, they stood and stumbled towards him, but he already had his pocketknife in hand. Their deaths were quick and after the deed was done, Harry's knees gave away in his grief.

He sobbed, crawling towards what remained of his wife's body. Ignoring her body, he grasped her face with both of his hands and closed her accusing gaze with shaking fingers, whispering apologies and love between hiccups. Planting one last kiss to her forehead, he pulled away, wiping the tears from his eyes. Her dismembered arm run under her chin, her fist clutched tight even in death.

In her hand was a piece of parchment. Carefully extracting it, he smoothed it out and read.

And screamed as his heart broke into billions of pieces.

Dirty, mud smeared combat boots stepped heavily onto land they haven't touched in over a decade. A black haired man wearing a dirty, ripped trench coat paused before continuing his steady gait. As his side was a gleaming black licker, easily twice the man's size. He waved at it and it shot into the surrounding forest, eager to find its next meal.

At the man's other side was a smaller licker, still bigger than the man, but not as huge as the first. Following this licker were numerous little black lickers of varying shapes and sizes. One of the smaller lickers chirped and crawled up the man's back, over his shoulder and into his awaiting arms, settling down comfortably. The man nuzzled it lovingly with a smile.

The charred remains of what used to be a house stood as a remnant of what had been. Nature had already started to claim it, but it would take a very long time for the remains of the memory burned into the earth to disappear.

Harry watched the fire roar and cackle at his misfortune as it ate the house that had become his and Ginny's. That would have become to the home to their children and grandchildren. Where he would have grown old and died at the side of the woman he loved so dearly.

The parchment he had found earlier was clenched in his hand, the words scripted on it speaking of the future he would never have. His other hand held the Elder Wand tightly, controlling the fiendfyre with little thought.

Tears tracked rivers down his cheeks, his green eyes haunted. The temptation to use the Stone was so great that he clenched the parchment in a white knuckled grip. He would not. He would _not_.

The urge slowly went away, but when it did, he felt lighter in a way he shouldn't be. Taking one last look at the parchment, more tears appeared as he tossed it into the hungry flame, watching as it shrivelled into ash. With a flick of his wrist, the fiendfyre's sentience left, only a regular fire left to cleanse the bad memories.

Harry turned and walked away, his tears dripping off his cheek and onto the ground. He swore; he would never return to this place.

_Ginerva Potter_

_We are pleased to inform you that you are currently with child. The child is ten weeks along and very healthy. Through parental spells, the father was found to be Lord Harry James Potter. Congratulations! We wish you the best of luck with your pregnancy and be sure to check in regularly for checkups._

_Sincerely,_

_St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries_

Harry stood at those remains for hours, deep in thought, one hand in a fist and the other still holding the now sleeping licker.

Finally coming to some conclusion, he held out his hand face up and opened it. In his palm was a beautiful ring, an heirloom from his family's vault. It's the same ring he had used to propose to Ginny, so very long ago. The gold was tarnished from years of neglect, but it still shone with an inner light. It held their promises to each other, their hopes and dreams… their love and devotion.

Kneeling, he manually dug a hole in the ground, making sure not to drop the ring. Once the hole was sufficiently deep, he carefully placed the ring inside. Using his teeth, he removed his glove to reveal the matching ring on his own finger, the one he had never once taken off. He stared at it for a minute, then removed it with his teeth and set it inside the hole, on top of Ginny's ring, making them look entwined.

With a sad smile, Harry replaced his glove and buried the rings, finally laying Ginny's memory to rest.

Standing, he pulled out the Elder Wand. Waving it around in a complex pattern, Harry conjured a small tombstone. From there he painstakingly wrote a handful of words. Then, he cast charm over charm onto the stone, from invulnerability from the elements to indestructability from outside forces. He ensured that the tombstone would remain there, guarding their memories for the rest of eternity. It was the least he could do for the woman he had planned on spending the rest of his life with.

His shoulders feeling lighter than they ever had, Harry left that sacred place, nuzzling his new future.


End file.
